Over 1,000 security personnel deployed ahead of Serere County by-election

Serere, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | More than 1,000 security personnel have been deployed to man security ahead of Serere County by-election on Thursday.

The security personnel include soldiers from the Uganda People’s Defense Force-UPDF, Uganda Police Force-UPF and the Uganda Prison Service-UPS. The others are intelligence personnel scattered across the seven sub-counties and three town councils in the constituency.

Oscar Gregg Ageca, the East Kyoga Regional Police Spokesman says that the security personnel will be conducting foot patrols and other security operations to ensure that the Thursday polls are peaceful, free, and fair for all the candidates.

But Alice Alaso Asianut, the Alliance for National Transformation- ANT candidate, says that the presence of the security personnel in the constituency is causing fear in the minds of the electorate, whom she notes are already scared. Alaso says that some of the security personnel are involved in the campaigns and threaten residents to vote for certain candidates.

Alaso also raised concern over the presence of Resident District Commissioners- RDCs who have pitched camp in Serere. She says that by Monday morning, more than 30 RDCs were seen in different parts of the constituency threatening people as they campaign for the NRM flag bearer. But Ageca said that the RDCs are in the constituency ahead of the president’s visit to campaign for the NRM flag bearer on Tuesday, February 21, 2023.

The official campaigns for the Serere County by-election end on Tuesday ahead of polls on Thursday. There are five candidates struggling to replace Patrick Okabe, who died in a road accident in December last year. The candidates are Emmanuel Omoding, Okabe’s son who is running on an independent ticket, Emmanuel Eratu of FDC, Phillip Oucor of NRM, Alice Alaso of ANT, and martin Onguruco, an independent.

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